Sub Pixel and Rendered Hero join forces for Portland's "DRAEMS" animation festival. It was a rushed job that had to be completed in our "spare" time. There were many problems with our final output, but it was great to do a personal project and learn some new tricks while doing so.

Local Portland animators showed up in force for the 2017 Portland Design Week animation and reel review. This year's theme was "Dreams". I was so inspired by the last year's submissions for "Alphabest" that I wanted to be sure to participate this year. Sub Pixel teamed up with Rendered Hero (as Minimal Massive) and submitted "The Biology of Dreams". The highlights for me personally were Mode Adjust's MASK, “Transplant” by PMurphy + Meg Hunt, and the sublime"Rhythm Repeat" by Carlos Enciso + Daniel Moreno. Amazing work everyone!

Last of the swag. Hoodies, t-shirts, bags, and the obligatory business cards. I just finished updating the logo and realized it's about time to put in a new order. Big things coming in 2017. Expanding the horizons & expanding the parameters.

The first week of my stay in New York was pretty exciting. A block away from where I was working in Manhattan, a man attacked a police officer with a meat cleaver and was subsequently shot multiple times. Shortly thereafter a bomb exploded just steps from where I was buying beer the night before. This all took place blocks from where I was staying in Chelsea.

I had already decided to move out to Brooklyn for the remainder of my stay before the pipe bombs went off injuring 29 people. The event did, however, reinforce my gut feeling to get out of the expenses of downtown Manhattan and take in a different side of the city. Staying in Brooklyn was great. It gave me an opportunity to get out and explore the neighborhoods in that area. It also introduced a subway commute into my daily routine.

Subways rule. They are easy, fast, and eliminate the impossible task of navigating unspeakable traffic and parking scenarios in urban centers. That said, many claustrophobic hours of my stay were spent buried beneath steel and concrete, pressed up against strangers in the awkward confines of a metallic wheeled centipede scurrying through dirty catacombs below the concrete mass of the city.

I vividly remember the fist time I visited New York City. It was a remarkable thing to see the iconic skyline of Gotham lit up at night. The feeling of being dwarfed by monumental structures of steel and cement as the city devoured the roadway and nearly blotted out the sky.

While working with Perception Studios, I had the unique opportunity to be a part of the daily happenings of the city. I shopped for groceries, washed clothes, and commuted with the rest of the city's inhabitants.

I've always been fascinated by graffiti, wheat paste, stickers and the like. I enjoyed going for walks and taking pictures of the street art that was inevitably around every corner. It was fun to see recognizable names and art on walls acquiring texture from sun, rain, torn edges, stickers and graffiti. The city was covered in these living collages.

It's easy to become too busy to explore and play but, it is precisely from those times of playful exploration that new vistas of possibility open and our personal growth as artists and technicians is cultivated.

I had the pleasure of chatting with local Portland band, MSHR in recent days. In fact, it is not really fair at all to call MSHR simply "a band". Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy are sculptors of light, sound, solder, and space. MSHR create their own instruments which are driven by proximity, light, and voltage. Other worldly sounds accompany flashing lights and culminate in an ocean of bleeps and wobbles. It was a joy to meet such pleasant and humble people who are so fully dedicated to creating sub cultural art. I wish them the best as they move to a residency in New York to further cultivate their creative performance art.

There was an amazing turnout for the Portland Alphabest animation showing / Reel review. I was honored to be a judge during the process and see some of Portland's finest motion graphic artists and animators from all walks and styles. There is a great pool of very talented people here in Portland and it is exciting to see the community and the talent therein growing.

PORTLAND VR MEET-UP

I joined the Portland Virtual Reality Meet-up group for a download of Kent Bye's discoveries after returning from a 12 day trip covering GDC, SXSW, & IEEE VR. What ensued was a thought provoking talk touching on emergent technology, and VR software. The meet up most certainly stirred up my curiosity about the possibility of creating and designing these immersive environments.

Members of the group were kind enough to set up VR demos which attendees could experience. If you are interested in immersive technologies, gaming, or digital art this group is certainly worth meeting up with.

It's nice to finally share some boards I designed for FOX Television about 8 months ago. I had a blast designing these and it was easy work given the great show premise and complete creative freedom to explore the title.

Expectations for fast quality renders are constantly rising. As a freelancer, I am interested in economic renders that also look amazing. It's a constant battle to keep render times down while maintaining the most beautiful renders possible.

This equation of speed and quality has me looking to Octane Renderer as a possible solution. In looking over the interwebs I came across the artwork of Cornelius Dämmrich. His work speaks for itself and demonstrates how beautiful Octane handles materials and lighting in the hands of an amazing artist.